To date, there is very little available in the way of bottle or can insulating jackets. One product that is available in the market place is in the form of a styrofoam cup which can be slid over the bottom of a can or bottle. However, this cup has no direct heating or cooling effect on the beverage in the can or bottle and provides an insulating effect only.
Very recently a new refrigeratable beverage container holder has been introduced to the market place. This particular product includes a interior refrigeratable liquid for providing a cooling effect on a container, typically a beer can, fitted in the holder. Descriptions of this product as well as methods of manufacturing of the product are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,163,374, 4,183,226, 4,299,100 and 4,378,625 all owned by Freezesleeves of America Inc.
The above patents describe a number of different holder designs. However, each of these designs is based on the standard styrofoam cup as earlier described with the dead air space between the styrofoam cup and the beer can being filled by refrigerant or a refrigerant lining physically engaging the beer can. In use, it has been found that if the refrigerant is truly effective it cannot touch the beer can in as much as this may result in freezing of the can contents.
Another difficulty found in the Freezesleeve design where, as shown for example in FIG. 4 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,163,374, the refrigerant is simply trapped between an inner lining and the styrofoam cup is to provide a seal which will not allow leakage of the refrigerant. According to U.S. Pat. No. 4,163,374 this is achieved by physically embedding a part of the lining into the styrofoam cup. However, again it has been found that in use this type of sealing is not entirely effective because of the weakness of the styrofoam which tends to crack and break resulting in the refrigerant leaking between the lining and the cup.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,183,226 shows in FIGS. 2 and 3 two other embodiments of the Freezesleeve's holder. Each of these embodiments comprises a totally independent refrigerant lining again designed to circumferentially engage the beer can. Although these two linings do not suffer from the same leakage problem described above, they are difficult and expensive to manufacture and do not present any surface for positive engagement with the outer styrofoam cup.